I didn't realize it was his job to promote the tournament. But there seems to be buzz here in South Florida, I was invited to join a WhatsApp group of some friends to follow the tournament, whom I didn't even know had a casual interest in soccer. I'll say the same thing about him as I said about Klinsmann here years ago, I'll judge him after the World Cup, everything else is bull shit. They both did things that pissed me off, but I'm not judging them on my feelings.…
Since I'm pretty sure you're English originally, I'll mention that speaking of golf, a buddy of mine ran into the England team at a combination driving range and putting green facility we have here in Palm Beach County.
For the there is no buzz crowd: 5,500 lucky #USMNT fans welcome the World Cup co-hosts ahead of their first training session in Irvine, Calif. Over 30,000 requested tickets. pic.twitter.com/uoKJKomVmm— Doug McIntyre (@ByDougMcIntyre) June 8, 2026
Well at least Poch can no longer say Weah is being a distraction... A diferença do recebimento da Seleção de Senegal nos Estados Unidos em relação ao recebimento da Seleção da Espanha no México. pic.twitter.com/PUs7820HgX— DataFut (@DataFutebol) June 8, 2026 Africa's top referee will not be allowed to officiate at the World Cup after he was refused entry to the USA, FIFA has confirmed 🚨 pic.twitter.com/GUsUyLcMlM— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) June 9, 2026 So far at the 2026 FIFA Epstein Cup before a ball kicked:- Senegal & Uzbekistan squads treated like criminals upon arrival given full cavity searches;- Africa’s best referee sent back to Somalia despite having a diplomatic passport;- Iraq team photographer sent back despite… https://t.co/1V0cKKAnAQ— Nima Tavallaey Roodsari (@NimaTavRood) June 8, 2026 He is only 33 years old. This is the biggest moment of his career. He’s probably been waiting for it for months.But who will talk about it? There are 48 teams, hundreds of players, and representatives from all over the world. Who will finally speak up? https://t.co/MzzkP2jmwp— failed (@unnamedbutalone) June 8, 2026 Morocco, in 1777, was the first county in the world to recognize the United States as a sovereign nation. https://t.co/1kNZiq9d4W— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) June 9, 2026
It's great that 5 thousand people saw a practice I guess but this seems like a slightly bigger deal? With just days left, the U.S. opening match at the World Cup is still not sold out
Not a forum for politics. I’m ok with bashing the handling of allowing people in - but greater political issues are for another forum.
Yeah that was a bit hyperbolic. Still embarrassing though and hearing us getting compared negatively to Qatar is uh.. not great Still not sure what this has to do with Poch. Should probably be a separate thread if there isn't already one about the buzz.
The ref one is particularly wild because there’s no way he would have gotten on the plane in the first place had he not been granted a visa. Hopefully he gets to ref a game in Canada or Mexico so he’s still at the World Cup.
On the buzz front I think part of why it’s seemed more muted is how FIFA has treated and priced this tournament. But I do think it’s building overall though I do for instance think it helps in place like New York where the mayor is a diehard soccer fan and doing a ton to promote it. But for the USMNT is going to build across the group stage and really start to take off in the knockout rounds. The better we perform the more buzz there’s going to be.
I think buzz is really hard to measure in any sort of empirical sense. Like there was zero buzz about Olympic hockey here whatsoever until the gold medal games, and then it was huge. The average person flipping around on TV (or their streaming apps I suppose) or tweeting online isn't looking forward to sporting events months or weeks in advance, it's usually not on their radar until the day of or if they hear their team is within arm's reach of the big prize.
Isn't the game effectively sold out, just something like 100 or so VIP passes left and then a small number of scalpers trying to desperately hold the line on their tickets? Stadium is gonna look full, the headlines are click bait and making it seem like theres gonna be patches of empty seats everywhere
There's a lot to criticize, but we're basically at that point that everything is overblown to the point of stupidity. I was just in London and got patted down going into a musical. These events will, for obvious and sometimes self-inflicted reasons, massive targets for violent attacks, political or otherwise. Players of all sports and nationalities and races get searched going into stadiums.
There are still some fun/interesting group stage games. Outside of the US we have Brazil/Morocco Saturday and Japan/Netherlands Sunday for instance.
Did you miss the part of the tweet that said 30,000 people applied for tickets to a practice? Practice! You talking about practice?
Yeah there's only a couple hundred or so unsold seats. The rest are resale, and just because tickets are on resale, doesn't mean the ticket holders are just gonna eat their losses and watch from their couch. Anyone without a plan for attending the match themselves will offload it to somebody else so that they can get at least something back.
Lloyd H - buzzkill also, I bought a ticket package to all the games except the final at the 94 world cup for about what a single ticket to US- Paraguay is going for. And could have scalped a ticket to the Italy - Brazil final for $300 cash dollars (ended up watching a Pas bar instead as I'd spent enough time in the RB by then and seen Brazil 2x that year. I have attended a lot of USMNT footie in my history, I will probably not go US Paraguay or US turkey and the tix are just too pricey for me to justify. I'm probably going to let a buddy who is in town for the games use my house and take the missus on a little weekend away.